38 Powerful Pictures From The Sony World Photography Awards

Open Highlights.

The Open competition saw 65,512 entries this year, from across 166 countries. The competition is designed so as to provide committed amateur and enthusiast photographers the opportunity to have their work awarded and exhibited internationally.

3. ‘Muddy smile’.

4. ‘Yellow Fellow’.

“Holi is one of the major festival of India and is the most vibrant of all. The joys of Holi knows no bound. The festival is celebrated across the four corners of India or rather across the globe. The festival is filled with so much fun and frolic that the very mention of the word ‘Holi’ draws smile and enthusiasm amongst the people. Holi also celebrates the arrival of Spring, a season of joy and hope.”

9. ‘Beer festival in Munich’.

10. ‘Be Cheerful Even in the Darkest of Times’.

“In your youth, nothing can stop you from enjoying time with your friends, especially not a simple matter of rain during summer fun. You may grow up and forget the names, but you’ll always remember the moments, the time on the dock with your friends during a surprise shower.”

11. ‘Young men from the Kara Tribe, Omo, Ethiopia’.

“Painting the body is one of the great pleasure of this tribe … thrilled to get this color in an infrared photo. I have not seen anything like this and was actually surprised with the results. The expanse of land where this tribe lives is amazing. Several times a day they travel down to the Omo River below to bring it up water. They like how they look but they needed the gun to finish it off just like most guys their age in the Valley.”

15. ‘Samsara~’

“This year I had the pleasure to join the pilgrims and devotees of the Maha Kumbh Mela – the largest spiritual gathering on the planet, held every 12 years.”

Professional Highlights.

Bringing together the very best international contemporary photography, the shortlist offers a unique insight into 2013 through the eyes of some of the world’s best emerging and established photography talents.

17. ‘Mod Couples’.

“These images are from a personal project on couples who belong to the mod scene, a subculture that originated in Britain in the late fifties and became very popular during the sixties. It is quite difficult to pin down what lies at the heart of this movement as it has evolved in many different ways during the years, but all mods share a passion for everything related to the fifties and the sixties, especially the clothes and the music.”

18. ‘Mother and Son’.

“A Christ‐like image, a bare‐chested son rests near his mother. Why does this image of the mother‐son relationship move us so? Because the son, by his nudity, looks as fragile as he was on the day of his birth? Because the mother seems fulfilled by the presence of son, who completes her?”

24. ‘Deep Night’.

25. ‘Neighbours’.

“Neigbours is a series of typical Belgian double houses. Every single building is an expression of individuality. These various and often contradictory partnerships are remarkable. When people with so often opposite taste and style manage to live.”

26. ‘Wax System’.

27. ‘Cost of slavery’.

“‘This building will stand a hundred years,’ owner boasted just a day before collapse. The next morning, it came down. Reports state that 1130 workers died and nearly 2500 were rescued alive after the eight‐story building Rana Plaza that housed mostly garment factories collapsed on 24 April 2013.”

29. ‘Timeless’.

30. ‘The Fighter, The Father’.

“The Fighter, The Father is the story of Jorge Herrera’s life. Fleeing as 9 year old from an abusive father and a Chilean dictatorship, a troublemaker in his youth in Tingbjerg, Copenhagen, smoking hash, violent behavior and being sent to jail. Memory loss and injuries on the hard‐trained body are starting to show after a hard life. At the age of 35 years Jorge Herrera has started to recreate his own life.”

32. ‘No Moore’.

“For 39 minutes on May 20, 2013, a massive EF5 tornado with winds reaching 210 mph cut a 17‐mile long path that was 1.3 miles wide at its peak. Moore, OK bore the brunt of the damage and of the 24 casualties, seven were children at Plaza Towers Elementary School, which had no storm shelter. Destiny Pierman, 13 collects belongings from the damaged bedroom of her home in Moore, OK.”

35. ‘Historic Present’.

“Sungseok Ahn’s Historic Present questions the memory of past from the fast changing scenery of today. By overlapping a historical location with an old image of that exact place, he questions the way we treat our history and explores the dynamics.”

37. ‘Bears and Birds.’

38. ‘Wet dog.’

“Wet Dog is a series of portraits of dogs caught mid‐bath. The dogs are photographed at a vulnerable moment, half a second before they shake the water off their fur. Sophie’s pictures capture their character and, in some cases, recognizable emotions (like annoyance, misery or vengefulness).”